So, what is the bare man butt of the 2016 fall season? There are plenty of contenders: the network slate is brimming with ambitious, high-concept comedies about muddling through the afterlife (NBC’s The Good Place), preparing for the end of the world (the CW’s No Tomorrow), and an 80s-style Sunday-morning cartoon character reconnecting with his estranged family (Fox’s *Son of Zorn). Literally every network has a time-travel-based series premiering this fall or at midseason (NBC’s Timeless, the CW’s Frequency, ABC’s Time After Time, Fox’s *Making History). Of course, there’s also the usual glut of remakes, reboots, and shows otherwise based on pre-existing properties—from HBO’s Westworld to Fox’s Lethal Weapon to CBS’s MacGyver.

And then there are these slightly more interesting mini-trends, ones that shed light on this idiosyncratic, peak-Peak-TV moment—one that’s more concerned than ever with promoting diversity in its many forms; one that’s broadening the definition of what it even means to be a television show; one that’s still old-fashioned enough to plunk Kevin James in front of a laugh track, shout out “action,” and call it a day. Let’s take a closer look. —Hillary Busis

Stranger Things.

Courtesy of Netflix.

The streaming game gets serious

With its latest buzzy hit, Stranger Things, barely in the rearview, Netflix remains, by far, the dominant player out of the original-content-producing streaming services. But! It’s not the only one, as Amazon, Hulu, and Crackle—yes, Crackle—are hoping to remind us this fall. Of course, Amazon and Hulu have been players in streaming TV for a few years now—it’s just that none of their original content, besides Amazon’s Transparent, has really broken through to the cultural mainstream. Perhaps their new fall shows will.

Amazon has Goliath, a series starring Billy Bob Thornton and created by 1990s super-producer David E. Kelley. It’s about a lawyer, because it’s a David E. Kelley show, but it seems to have a darker twist to it—darker than, say, Ally McBeal. Thornton is joined by heavy-hitting supporting players (and A History of Violence co-stars) William Hurt and Maria Bello, so this show means business.

So does Hulu’s big fall power play, Chance, starring Hugh Laurie. The show is called Chance and his character’s last name is Chance, just like House on House, because this is what Hugh Laurie does when he’s on TV. Chance is a forensic neuropsychiatrist who investigates stuff and, I dunno, gets sucked into some kind of intrigue. He’s joined by a company of strong actors, including The Wire’s Clarke Peters and Gretchen Mol, prestige drama’s secret weapon (as evidenced by her show-stealing turn on Boardwalk Empire, anyway). The show’s pedigree is strong, as it’s co-created by a Deadwood writer and all, so maybe Chance will catch the wave that Hulu’s starry, high-profile, dull The Path didn’t earlier this year.

And then there’s Crackle, which swung and mostly missed with the Dennis Quaid-starring art-world thriller The Art of More last year (it has been renewed for a second season, at least). It’s trying again with the stylish-looking StartUp, about a curious intersection between tech and drug crime. The series stars newcomer Otmara Marrero as a computer whiz who invents an online currency similar to Bitcoin. She’s joined by the millennial generation’s imaginary boyfriend, Adam Brody, and Billy Bob Thornton’s Fargo co-star Martin Freeman.StartUp looks the most promising of the three series, though whether it, or any of them, can find an audience remains a big question mark. As fears that we’ve reached “peak TV” mount, streaming services are going to have to struggle all the harder for viewers’ attention. These shows are, at least, shiny objects. —Richard Lawson

Pure Genius.

Courtesy of CBS.

The strange resurgence of JonBenét Ramsey

Get ready to see a lot of this six-year-old beauty queen’s hauntingly familiar face, starting in September. (What hath you wrought, The People v. O.J. Simpson?) On September 5, A&E kicked things off with The Killing of JonBenét: The Truth Uncovered; this Friday, NBC News will debut a two-hour Dateline dedicated to the pageant star whose perplexing kidnapping and murder gripped the nation back in 1996.

From there, the specials will just keep coming. On September 12, Investigation Discovery offers JonBenét: An American Murder Story, a three-night special featuring exclusive footage and interviews. Monday will also mark the first leg of a three-part Dr. Phil interview with JonBenét’s brother, who was nine years old at the time of her murder. On September 18, CBS will debut The Case of: JonBenét Ramsey, which brings together investigators old and new to try and solve the case—with the help of life-size replicas of key rooms within the Ramsey house. And then there’s Lifetime, which has Who Killed JonBenét? in the works for November.

If we haven’t cracked this case by 2017, it seems safe to say we never will. —Laura Bradley

This Is Us.

Courtesy of NBC.

The adventures of Male Genius and Female Underdog

If you’re looking for hotshot men with natural-born talent, then look no further than Fall TV 2016. CBS’s official network description indicates that Dermot Mulroney will play a brilliant surgeon with a “cutting-edge, new school” approach in Pure Genius. Michael Weatherly, playing a fictionalized version of Dr. Phil McGraw, is a character who “possesses a physicality and feral intelligence that make him magnetic to women” in the same network’s Bull. Meanwhile, ABC’s Notorious—which ABC is selling as a two-hander drama that’s led by both Piper Perabo’s cable-news producer and Daniel Sunjata’s defense lawyer—feels the need to point out that while both are extraordinarily talented at their jobs, Perabo’s character cannot find herself a man. How novel!

That last part may place Perabo in the same scrappy-underdog category where a lot of women find themselves this fall. In Fox’s Pitch, we see Kylie Bunbury as the first female pitcher drafted into the M.L.B.—where she has to prove herself under an extraordinary amount of pressure and sexism. Ditto Hayley Atwell’s disgraced daughter of a president turned lawyer, who is essentially blackmailed into heading up a legal team on ABC’s Conviction. But it’s Pamela Adlon in FX’s Better Things who may best tackle Hollywood’s tendency to portray women as being at some kind of disadvantage. Calling on her three decades of experience in the industry, Adlon—who created the show with her longtime collaborator Louis C.K. and also racks up writing and directing credits on it—serves up an autobiographical look at what it’s like to be an actress of a certain age. Spoiler alert: it’s not easy. —Joanna Robinson

The new faces of comedy

We’re not back to the glory days of the 90s, but offbeat comedies from young black creators are popping up all over cable this season. From Donald Glover’s intense dramedy Atlanta on FX, to Issa Rae’s best-friend comedy Insecure on HBO, to Girl Code fixture Nicole Byer’sLoosely Exactly Nicole on MTV, each show is forging a new wave.

Glover’s Atlanta shines a spotlight on his native city, delivering an experimental series that gets darker as it progresses, sort of like network mate Louis C.K.’s Louie. Though Glover got his start as a comedian, Atlanta isn’t a return to his goofy roots—it’s a thoughtful departure, the work of an artist shifting into the next phase of his career.

Meanwhile, Insecure is breaking barriers at HBO as one of its first shows starring (and co-created by) a black woman. In this winning series, Rae pals around South L.A. with her best friend and contemplates her wilting love life—making for one of the most refreshingly authentic depictions of black female friendship in recent memory.

Laugh-out-loud good, Loosely Exactly Nicole is based on Byer’s early years as a struggling actress whose first and foremost concern is sex. Byer is also breaking ground by simply being herself, crafting a series free from the typical stereotypes forced upon plus-size black women. “I shouldn’t have a show on paper,” she recently told The Hollywood Reporter. “A fat black lady who just fucks people left and right on her show, and we never talk about how she’s fat and black? That’s crazy!” Maybe one day it’ll even be the new normal. —Yohana Desta

Insecure.

Courtesy of HBO.

Network TV does a body check

Generally speaking, everyone on TV looks the same. Women tend to be lean but not gaunt; men are toned without being overly muscular. This fall, though, you can look out for three shows featuring characters whose body types fall outside the Hollywood norm.

In NBC’s This Is Us,Chrissy Metz’s character, Kate, struggles visibly with her body image. She attends Overeaters Anonymous meetings; she says, aloud, that she’s trying to “lose the damn weight.” Kate’s portrayal could prove divisive: overweight characters are often absent from screens, but when they appear on TV or in films at all, they’re rarely depicted as actual people with complex aspirations and emotions beyond their weight. In that context, Kate might rub some viewers the wrong way—though her character could very well get more nuanced in future episodes. And whatever Kate thinks of herself, the show is careful to make it very clear that other people—like a member of her support group—find her beautiful just the way she is.

Over on ABC, American Housewife follows a regular-size, stay-at-home mom (Katy Mixon) struggling to fit in among her very slender, put-together, hoity-toity peers. “The second-fattest housewife” in town, Katie is a sharp-tongued mother who can’t help but feel down on herself when she compares herself to the Stepford creatures surrounding her. But once again, the show makes sure—even in the trailer—to emphasize that Katie’s husband finds her perfectly desirable, regardless of where her self-esteem might fall at any given moment.

And then there’s Speechless, which covers a different bodily subject entirely: what it’s like to be disabled, or to love someone who is. Minnie Driver plays a fierce mother whose son is confined to a wheelchair—and she is very outspoken when she sees something amiss, like the fact that her son’s new school forces him to enter through the same ramp used to dispose of garbage. However rare it is to see a bigger person on TV, disability has been rendered even more invisible. From that perspective alone, Speechless already promises a fresh take on the traditional family comedy. Add in Driver’s caustic wit, and ABC might have something downright refreshing on its hands. —Laura Bradley

Son of Zorn.

Courtesy of Fox.

And, of course, daddy issues

Perhaps hoping to fill the massive Two and a Half Men-size ratings hole in its schedule, CBS is chasing a couple of dad comedies this fall: Man with a Plan and Kevin Can Wait. Unlike the more balanced family sitcoms you’d find in abundance on ABC, these CBS shows take a more Mr. Mom approach to focus on just how difficult it is to be a father in this strange, modern age. Cue laugh track.

Man with a Plan stars Matt LeBlanc—returning to network TV for the first time since Joey!—as a contractor who learns that raising his kids is more challenging than expected when his wife goes back to her job as a medical lab technician. Meanwhile, in Kevin Can Wait, a retired police officer played by Kevin James learns that life at home with his wife and three kids is more challenging than any of the dangers he faced on the force.

Mr. Mom was a novel concept 33 years ago, so if those CBS offerings seem a little tired, then Fox has a slightly different spin on the same plot. Son of Zorn hails from Phil Lord and Christopher Miller of Lego Movie and Last Man on Earth fame and stars Jason Sudeikis as Zorn, a He-Man-looking cartoon barbarian who leaves his animated world to join the live-action world and reconnect with his human family. Zorn is there to sell soap dispensers—but, more crucially, he’s there to connect with his teenage son (Johnny Pemberton) and ex-wife (Cheryl Hines). It’s hard out there for a dad, but things get even harder when he’s wearing a loin cloth. —Joanna Robinson

Claire Foy is photographed for her portrait as Queen Elizabeth II in full regalia, in what the Queen wore to her coronation ceremony in 1953. Foy portrays a young but steadfast Elizabeth as she assumes the throne at the age of 25.

Photo: Photograph by Julian Broad.

A car fit for a king! Julian Broad captures a brooding Matt Smith (best known as Doctor Who) in his role as a youthful Prince Philip, the Queen’s husband. In preparation for the part, Smith gleaned inside information by talking to a former officer of the British royal household.

Photo: Photograph by Julian Broad.

Foy, whose performance as Ann Boleyn in Wolf Hall earned her a BAFTA nomination, is equally magnificent in her latest turn as Queen of England.

Photo: Photograph by Julian Broad.

Vanessa Kirby plays Princess Margaret, the Queen’s late sister and her closest confidante. Kirby presents Margaret in a more vivacious and sultry light—a side of her character less exposed and commonly explored when depicting the royal sisters.

John Lithgow stars as the indomitable Winston Churchill, whose relationship with the Queen (almost 50 years his junior) as prime minister was the stimulus from which the entire series developed. Lithgow trained for hours with a dialect coach in order to perfect his rendering of perhaps the 20th century’s most famed British orator.

Photo: Photograph by Julian Broad.

The principal cast is photographed here on location at Lancaster House in London. Eileen Atkins and Victoria Hamilton star alongside Kirby, Foy, and Smith as Queen Mary (Elizabeth’s grandmother) and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

Photo: Photograph by Julian Broad.

Claire Foy is photographed for her portrait as Queen Elizabeth II in full regalia, in what the Queen wore to her coronation ceremony in 1953. Foy portrays a young but steadfast Elizabeth as she assumes the throne at the age of 25.

Photograph by Julian Broad.

A car fit for a king! Julian Broad captures a brooding Matt Smith (best known as Doctor Who) in his role as a youthful Prince Philip, the Queen’s husband. In preparation for the part, Smith gleaned inside information by talking to a former officer of the British royal household.

Photograph by Julian Broad.

Foy, whose performance as Ann Boleyn in Wolf Hall earned her a BAFTA nomination, is equally magnificent in her latest turn as Queen of England.

Photograph by Julian Broad.

Vanessa Kirby plays Princess Margaret, the Queen’s late sister and her closest confidante. Kirby presents Margaret in a more vivacious and sultry light—a side of her character less exposed and commonly explored when depicting the royal sisters.

John Lithgow stars as the indomitable Winston Churchill, whose relationship with the Queen (almost 50 years his junior) as prime minister was the stimulus from which the entire series developed. Lithgow trained for hours with a dialect coach in order to perfect his rendering of perhaps the 20th century’s most famed British orator.

Photograph by Julian Broad.

The principal cast is photographed here on location at Lancaster House in London. Eileen Atkins and Victoria Hamilton star alongside Kirby, Foy, and Smith as Queen Mary (Elizabeth’s grandmother) and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.